Costume designers honor '12 Years a Slave,' 'Behind the Candelabra'

Adam Tschorn

The Costume Designers Guild members honored their own at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton's International Ballroom on Saturday night, handing out awards for outstanding costume design in seven categories as well as a handful of honorary recognitions.

Among the high-profile attendees (many of them tapped to awards) included Mindy Kaling, Tony Hale, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Debra Winger, Kerry Washington, the evening’s host Joshua Malina (“The West Wing,” “Scandal”) and a va-va-voom Raquel Welch, who recognized the importance of costume design by quipping: “Face it, if [costume designer] Sir Carl Toms hadn’t put me in that fur bikini in ‘One Million Years B.C.,’ I wouldn’t be here -- there wouldn’t be a Raquel Welch.”

In a possible preview of Oscar night, Patricia Norris won for excellence in period film for her efforts on “12 Years a Slave,” a category that included fellow 2014 Academy Award nominees Michael Wilkinson for “American Hustle” and Catherine Martin for “The Great Gatsby.”

Norris' son took to the stage to accept the award on her behalf. “She said, ‘Go have a good time, I’m not going to win,’” Robert Norris said before reading a brief just-in-case list of thank-yous from his mother. “I can’t wait to give this to her. Thank you.”

April Ferry, whose costume design credits include “The Big Chill” and this year’s “RoboCop” remake, was the recipient of a career achievement award, Sharon Day received the distinguished service award and Judd Apatow was honored with the guild’s distinguished collaborator award.

After a montage of film stills and behind-the-scenes photos from his various movies and TV shows (“The Ben Stiller Show,” “Bridesmaids,” “Superbad” and “Girls” among them), Apatow noted that he had been wearing a Lacoste shirt “in every single shot.” “If that doesn’t get me a free box of [expletive] I don’t know what does,” he joked.

“My daughter’s obsessed with alligators right now,” Adams said, “so I’m going to put this in her room while she’s asleep and she's going to freak out."

Adams went on to share a light-hearted laundry list of things she'd learned from costume designers over the years, from "the actual start date of a movie" to "always wear undergarments to a fitting," ending with profuse thanks to costume designers, costume house Western Costume "and ['American Hustle' key costumer] Honah Lee [Milne], who helped me keep my dignity when, at the end of the day," Adams said, "there wasn't a shred of it left."